spring flowers portrait

[peterindb]

My first portrait submission...C&C is welcome of course.

She sat still for a couple of shots and said she's gonna be late for school...



Canon 60D, EFS 18-200mm IS, f13, 1/100, ISO 100,

[ktuli]

Peter,

I like the shot, but have a couple thing that you might want to try next time you can get her to sit still for another shot or two.

First, I would have tried a slightly wider aperture (perhaps f/8?) which would have helped to blur the flowers towards the bottom of the frame a bit more. With the f/13, there is just enough detail there that makes it a little distracting (at least for me).

Additionally, the distinct line between the green and purple at the top of the frame is distracting to me. Particularly that it rests right at the top of her head. I don't think you'll be able to crop it out because of that. Perhaps next time, shoot from a little higher angle to get her looking up towards the camera so that you would be able to use the field of flowers to completely frame her head.

Just my $0.02.

- Bill

[Dave Humphries]

My first portrait submission...C&C is welcome of course.

She sat still for a couple of shots and said she's gonna be late for school...



Canon 60D, EFS 18-200mm IS, f13, 1/100, ISO 100,

Hi Peter,

Welcome to the CiC forums from me

To me (and looking at the full 1,424px × 1,599px image, the eyes are softer than the hair clip and I believe you may have focused slightly past her, which won't help with the background being too sharp.

It's not a bad shot though, by any means.

I hope you don't mind, but I had a minor edit; cropped, bit of cloning (hair across face and top edge of frame to remove green line), down sized, sharpened.



Cheers,

[peterindb]

Thanks, all. The background definitely is better without the green.

Dave, I tried to clone out the hair with the healing brush....a bit of a challenge near the nose and facial shadows. Any tips is appreciated.

Peter

[Dave Humphries]

Thanks, all. The background definitely is better without the green.

Dave, I tried to clone out the hair with the healing brush....a bit of a challenge near the nose and facial shadows. Any tips is appreciated.

Peter

Given the tighter crop, the cloning of a few more purple blooms over the green was a small job, but helps even in this version.

On cloning the hair, I agree, the healing brush won't give you enough control (over where it samples from to fill), so I almost always use the proper clone tool.
Tips;
a) work on the full res version (i.e. before any downsizing)
b) zoom in (until you're at say, 200 - 400%)
c) make the brush only marginally bigger than the hair width (this would be different for cloning something other than a hair)
d) sample frequently from just alongside the hair (about two brush widths away)
e) sample on a transition, then start cloning where the transition passes under the hair and work outwards in either direction (e.g. on lip edge, nose edge, eye edge, etc. beside where the hair crosses it)

I'm aware I haven't done a fantastic job of it above, but if you didn't know where it was, there's not too much give away.

Hope that helps,

[peterindb]

Thanks Dave. This is very helpful.

Peter

[tb72]

Nice initial shot but I prfer the review of Dave